to the on-screen action in what is already one of television’s most social and interactive series. For the first time ever in primetime reality television, @CBSBigBrother followers can influence components of the show via a Twitter vote!

In its 14th season, Big Brother has started to incorporate Twitter into the broadcast - from showing live Tweets from viewers on air to allowing viewers to influence components of the show decided by a live Twitter vote. Ratings are on an upswing and so is the Twitter buzz. Compared to last season, the show has nearly 4x increased Tweets per episode on average (54.5K vs.11.3k per Bluefin Labs).

During last Thursday’s record-breaking episode, which surpassed its previous single-episode record for social comments, fans voted in the live Twitter poll using the hashtag #bbReward or #bbPunish to reward or punish the eliminated Houseguest who dropped out of the episode’s “Head of Household” competition. Over 64,000 Tweets streamed in from viewers on those two hashtags alone.

In addition to live-voting, Twitter fans can follow two other Big Brother Twitter accounts to stay up-to-date on what’s happening inside the house. @BigBrotherScoop gives fans insider production updates and @BigBrotherHoH allows the Head of Household to tweet daily messages to viewers and fans. Tune in tonight for the next episode of